Outside The Perfectly Symmetrical House
by Wezenstyx
Summary: With everything, every lie and every truth, now a mess on the ground in front of Evan, he made his way back home. He made the mistake of keeping his eyes towards the ground, unbeknown to his surroundings, wallowing in the pain and the despair of losing everything in the course of a night. But, because of his downcast gaze, he might lose more than he thought he would that night.
1. The Once Very Fashionable Ford Escort

**So hi. I hold out the smallest of hopes that maybe some of the people who read my first fic will also be die-hard DEH fans such as myself, but I know that might not be the case. But anyway, hello to all my fellow Dear Evan Hansen fans reading this right now. It is here that I tell you random crap you don't actually care about and epically fail at trying to be comedic.**

 **As I'm sure you know, as much as I'd like to, I do not own the masterpiece that is Dear Evan Hansen. I do, however, own my single oc and for that I am proud.**

 **All relationships within this story are canon, but they are not the focal point of this story. So please, I beg of you, don't toss it aside on account of that.**

 **That's all I really have to say at the moment, so enjoy!**

* * *

He'd left in a hurry.

After showing himself out without any of the things he'd walked in with Evan Hansen walked down the street, leaving the Murphy house in the distance.

Bitter cold nipping at him, freezing him to his very core he trudged up in the direction of his own house.

He wasn't focused.

He couldn't focus on anything if he tried, he had literally just lost every person who ever cared about him.

Despite everything that should have brought him back to earth, the dog barking at him through the window of an ugly 1950's era house, the screaming of a couple arguing with each other for the fifth time that month, the of the car coming down the street towards him, Evan remained hunched over, hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans, his eyes looking only at his feet.

He didn't really even feel the impact, not at first at least.

He didn't feel as he rolled up on top of the car and down the back but then the unbearable pain of many, too many, broken bones and hurt muscles hit him.

The drunk driving the car didn't seem to process the incident until after Evan was lying nearly unconscious on the ground behind his car.

Doors slammed as people ran out of their houses wanting an explanation as to why some guy was screaming, "Oh my God!" at the top of his lungs at eight o'clock at night.

They looked to the car, still running, in the middle of the street, then to the drunk, and finally at Evan, bloodied to the point where he was almost unrecognizable.

* * *

No one seemed to know what to do.

It was as if time had frozen, a mere three blocks from the house where Heidi Hansen was awaiting the return of her son, unknowing of the fact that he had just been hit by a crappy, beaten up, puke green, once very fashionable Ford Escort.

Awaiting the chance to apologize for not seeing the pain that had been and perhaps still was residing in her boy.

Her Evan.

God, she felt like such an idiot.

An utter failure at being a parent.

She had let the boy excited by the presence of a truck in his driveway be driven into the depths of depression.

She had no idea how long it would be until she actually got the chance to say this to her son.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the middle of the street three blocks away, one woman reacted.

With hair of gold and a stout figure, she ran back inside her perfectly symmetrical house.

Grabbing her phone, dialed the number she never thought she'd need, the number no person ever hopes they'll need, and pressed the phone urgently to her ear.

It was about three and a half minutes after telling the operator what she knew and demanding an ambulance that the bright flashing of red and blue turned appeared outside her house.

Heidi had watched the lights pass through the curtains of her living room window and made the mistake of completely ignoring them.

It was highly probable that the bloodied body the blonde watched be surrounded by paramedics already dead.

She didn't know them.

She didn't consider herself antisocial, but she most certainly didn't go door to door checking up on her neighbors, and they didn't do this to her.

She had fit right in when she had moved here.

However horrific it may seem, the possible death of the person in front of her house was quite possibly the most exciting thing that could happen to her.

She could be the reason that someone would live tonight.

That thought is what drove her to make the decision that would ultimately change her life in ways she could never even have imagined.

* * *

 **So what'd ya think? Any good? I do full intent on finishing this, no matter how long it takes me, and if no one even wants me too. Don't expect me to keep up with an update schedule, I can never keep up with them.**

 **Wow, I sound very formal and _get to the point_ like. Ugh. Review if you'd like, they're always appreciated, but I won't beg for them. **

**Thanks for reading all this**

 **Wezenstyx**


	2. Her Name Was Erika

**Hello again! It's been a while since I last updated, but hey, it's here isn't it? I promise I won't waste much of your time, I just have two things to say.**

 **First off; as you all know, I do not own the characters of Dear Evan Hansen, or Dear Evan Hansen itself. I do own my OC, though. She is mine.**

 **Second...off? (I don't know if that's grammatically correct); Thank you too, Guest, Jennymc99, and Guest(1st review) for reviewing. It meant a lot with such a small community here.**

 **Okay, so I'm done. Please enjoy!**

* * *

The blur that was panicky introducing herself to the paramedics and finding herself pushed into the truck with the body on the gurney seemed to completely leave her mind as she stared at the now obviously young man lying, still alive, beside her.

They hadn't cleaned him up yet, too focused on keeping his barely breathing body breathing and barely beating heart beating.

The ambulance, as you would expect, was very cramped.

Medical terms were being thrown out into the open at the speed of light, some of which the nervous wreck of a woman sitting beside a person whose name she didn't even know, understood.

Terms such as collapsed lung, broken-well-broken everything, but everything else was as good as a foreign language to her.

Not once in the ride back to the hospital did anybody ask her anything about what had happened, did she know the man and the typical questions.

If anything, she'd bet that they'd forgotten she was even there.

The scariest thing, to the blonde though, was the fact that this person probably wasn't even out of high school.

Meaning that he had a family, people who loved him, people who would be worried sick, people who would feel crushed with him in this state.

And even though she wasn't responsible, they would blame it on her because she's the one that's there.

They would need someone to blame, and with the drunk currently in the back of a police car, she was the next best thing.

That was what was truly frightening.

They pulled up to the hospital a mere, unsurprising, three and a half minutes after leaving the women's quiet street in her quiet neighborhood.

She wondered for no particular reason if she'd made a mistake in joining the teen and the paramedics in the ambulance.

She didn't know what to do with herself.

It was only eight fifteen at night.

She could go home and pretend that this never happened.

She could just let the hospital take care of him.

Carry on with her life without taking credit for hopefully saving him, but the face got to her again.

A face, though bloodied and beaten, struck a striking resemblance to that of her own son, or what she had imagined he would grow up to be.

She peered at it intently, studying the contours of his head.

And thus her decision to hop out and follow the boy into the hospital was made.

* * *

The phone's consistent beeping caused Heidi to fall out of her trance.

Evan was due back any minute.

In fact, he should have been there ages ago, but alas he wasn't.

She let it go to voicemail.

The operator didn't have any time to leave a message, so they called again.

This time it almost seemed more urgent to Heidi. An urgency that caused her to pick up the phone.

It was work.

The hospital. Reluctantly, she pressed 'answer'.

Her greeting obviously showed that she was in no way quote on quote "in the mood" to talk to work at the moment, and her full intent was to shut them up on an account of a family emergency, but their reply came much too fast for her to tell them this.

It seemed to come in spurts of only the important information.

…Evan…car accident…drunk driver…at the hospital…fatal injuries…currently unconscious…explain more when you arrive…

Heidi rushed out of the house, not bothering to lock any doors or take any anti-theft precautions.

She left everything inside, her purse, her wallet, her keys.

Shit! Rushing back into the house, front door wide open, she grabbed the necessities: Her phone, her keys, and her purse, and rushed out the door once more.

Again, no doors were locked.

* * *

Even though Heidi was a couple blocks farther from the hospital than the perfectly symmetrical house was, she still managed to get there in less than three minutes.

The woman sat in the waiting room, surrounded by more blood than she cared to be.

She watched Heidi run into through the hospital doors.

Reception greeted her with grave expressions.

She shouted at them asking for her son. Where was her son?

They responded solemnly explaining to her that he was currently in surgery, as he would be for the next couple of hours.

After he would promptly be moved to the ICU.

Then they were pointing to her. Heidi turned and looked at the woman than briskly walked towards her.

She enveloped the woman in a bear hug. Heidi asked the woman if she saw what happened.

If she knew anything.

The woman answered as honestly as she could. No, she didn't see the events play out, but yes, she did know what had happened.

The story is already known. Drunk driver, car, etcetera, etcetera.

Heidi introduced herself and the woman, in turn, did the same.

Her name was Erika.

* * *

 **And that's all! For now at least. I do fully intend on bringing the Murphys and Alana and Jared into this later, most likely next chapter, but I don't know. I think the focus on Hedi and the woman, now known as Erika is important to continue. Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed.**

 **Wezenstyx**


	3. Vanquished Anger

**And I'm back. Hello. Alas, the long-awaited third chapter has arrived. You all know of course the things I must get out of the way before letting you read. So here it is.**

 **I do not own Dear Evan Hansen or any of its characters. Erika, however, is in fact mine.(Spoiler, she isn't in this chapter so that matter is moot)**

 **Also, thanks to Hoverboard33219 and Guest2 for reviewing. The typos I made should be fixed by now.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Zoe didn't know how to deal with any of it.

Evan, who she'd thought she'd known so well, had been lying to her from the start of their relationship.

Apparently, Heidi wasn't the only one feeling like an idiot.

She couldn't sleep, not after what had just happened.

After Evan told them that he'd written the letter.

Though she wouldn't admit it, a small part of her really wanted to believe that Connor did love her and want to be close to her.

That was part of Evan's appeal, he could give insight that no one else could, fake insight.

Stuff that never really happened.

Her parents hadn't spoken to her, her mother hadn't spoken to her father.

Every one of them was in some state of shock.

Cynthia was in Conner's room holding the tie she'd given Evan to wear at the assembly so many months ago.

The fake emails sat on the bed to her right.

The last piece she had of her son that she'd tried so hard to 'fix' wasn't really her son at all.

So she wept.

Larry sat in the garage holding the box that remained of his baseball memorabilia.

He wasn't mourning Evan or Connor.

He was mourning the unspoken father-son relationship between him and Evan that'd he'd lost and the relationship he never got to have with Connor.

None of them moved from their spots for a very long time.

Zoe didn't go to school the next day.

Larry didn't go to work.

Cynthia stayed in Connor's room.

None of them knew that Evan was currently lying in a hospital bed in the ICU. None of them cared, or at least not until they heard.

* * *

Jared, still insanely angry at Evan, heard about him from his parents.

He'd been to school and noticed Evan's absence, masking the fact that he cared by the fact that 'he just needs to get his parents to pay for his car insurance'.

Heidi, like his parents, was under the assumption that he and Evan were in fact friends, so she called the Kleinmans to let them know through a mist of tears.

Jared had woken up that day and he noticed the darkness seeming to surround it almost immediately.

Then again, Mondays did tend to provide that sort of feeling.

None of them knew anything yet.

They continued with their morning routine, that being all of them sticking to their own business.

The Kleinmans were not necessarily the most communicative of families.

Jared sat at the circular kitchen table, mindlessly staring out the window as his bowl of cereal sat in front of him. It was now too soggy to be appetizing.

Jared's mother walked into the room.

She was a stout woman of forty or so years.

She constantly had the resting face of a librarian pointedly glaring at you above her glasses.

She was, by the way, a librarian who was always pointedly glaring at you above her glasses.

She greeted Jared with a simple hello before setting to work on her own breakfast.

His father had already left for work.

After spitting out a bite of his cereal, Jared decided it was time to leave for school.

He looked in the mirror on his way out the door, just to check that everything was the way he wanted it. It was close enough.

School carried on as it always had, but the empty desks that Evan had left gave a sort of death like feeling.

Jared didn't like that feeling, but it only increased when he was called to the office in the middle of English.

Both his parents were there solemnly sitting in the lobby.

He looked at the two, obviously trying to show his confusion.

He asked what this was about.

His parents told them that Evan was in the hospital.

Jared asked why.

They responded simply that he'd been in an accident the night before.

They didn't know anything more.

They didn't know how hurt he was if it was just another broken arm or worse.

They didn't know.

He didn't know.

He didn't like not knowing, but he didn't let this show.

He put on a face, trying to convince himself that Evan was still a self-centered ass even if he was in the hospital, and told his parents that he needed to get back to class.

They let him go, but time to think was not something Jared wanted, and he knew that that's what the walk back would provide.

He knew that in the two minutes that it would take him to return to English his anger would be vanquished and fear for his friend would take its place.

* * *

Alana glanced at the door as Jared reentered class. He looked shaken, freaked.

She tried to get his attention, but not once did he look up from his desk after he sat down.

She tried to talk to him after class, but the minute the bell rang he was gone.

She repeatedly called after him, asking if he was okay, but he never responded.

Finally, she grabbed his arm and forced him to look at her.

Again she asked if he was okay.

He shook his head, saying that nothing was alright.

Alana looked at him and asked another question: What was so upsetting?

Jared replied simply:

It was Evan.

Alana scoffed, asking him what Evan had said or done now.

Jared responded saying that he hadn't spoken at Evan since their argument, but he was in the hospital.

Alana scoffed again, shooting back that it was probably just another broken limb and that they shouldn't care.

Jared made it clear that he didn't think that that was the case.

Why would Heidi call his parents if he'd just broken his arm again?

Why would they come to school in the middle of the day to tell him this if it wasn't serious?

Alas, the same thing that happened to Jared happened her anger diminished and fear replaced it.

She announced that they were going to see him.

* * *

 **And its over. I do realise that its not the most festive of updates, but if I'm being honest this isn't the most festive of stories. I think that might be pretty clear. Anyway, I myself want to find out how this hospital visit will go down so I'm going to go write it. I hope you enjoyed.**

 **Wezenstyx**


	4. Voids

**Well... I've been gone for a while. Guys, I kid you not, I've had the worst case of writer's block since Christmas, you have no idea. I know really that's no excuse, but seriously, it's terrible, and I hate it. Due to the writer's block, this chapter's short. A whopping 840 words (according to non-premium Grammerly), hey but I expect the next one to be longer... I hope. Anyway, as I'm sure you all know, I don't own any of the characters except for Erika and that I'm so grateful to everyone who reviewed. I'm legitimately to lazy to name you all, but hey, you know who you are. So thank you and enjoy.**

* * *

Gradually Zoe made her way downstairs.

It was the early morning after the accident, seven or eight.

She hadn't slept.

She'd tried, but she couldn't.

She stood in the kitchen, mindlessly staring around, feeling like a stranger in her own home.

After a minute or so she decided that she was hungry.

The thing was, she really wasn't.

She felt like she was going to throw up as is, food wouldn't help.

Zoe just needed to fill the void that had formed in her heart. The empty feeling that came with heartbreak, especially more than one.

Mindlessly, she turned on the T.V and watched whatever was on. It was the news, they were covering a story about a car accident.

A drunk driver had hit a teenager, a senior.

It was early last night, right around seven forty-five.

Just about ten minutes after Evan had left, she realized.

Zoe looked harder at the screen, it was showing footage of the street in which the accident occurred.

She recognized it. She'd walked with Evan to his house after dinner occasionally.

He typically used that street… She listened harder.

The newscaster announced, to Zoe's horror, the name of the teenager.

The void grew larger.

* * *

He'd just tried to be happy in a place that wasn't his.

That's all Evan did.

Heidi knew that he didn't deserve this, she knew that truly no one deserved this, but no one deserved it less than her Evan.

She knows that she sounds like the typical heartbroken mom, but how else should she act in this situation?

She can't just sit back and pretend that the Lord has a plan for all this.

She just can't.

Partly because she's not religious whatsoever, but mostly because she couldn't see any good in her son getting hit by a car.

Erika stayed by her side for the entire night.

They talked little, simply confronted by the other's presence.

Heidi was surprised that Erika hadn't left yet, generally confused as to why she cared so damn much about her son.

Of course, she didn't wonder this aloud.

No one else was there for her, not even her friends from work, who you know, were working or were at home with their families.

At some point late into the night, a doctor appeared in the waiting room. Hopeful eyes looked at him from every person sitting there, but ultimately he focused on Heidi.

Heidi knew him as Philip, but most called him Dr. Franklin.

He was widely known around the hospital as one of the best surgeons they had, but there was no doubt that he was, if nothing else, a hard ass.

You don't cross Philip Franklin, ever.

He greeted her, but she wasn't taking any of that crap.

What was going on with her son?

He told her it was bad. Really bad.

He started off with the worst, cracked cranium, ten broken ribs, four of which were true, a broken femur, a collapsed lung, and a severe concussion.

All odds were stacked against him.

On the more mild side, there was severe bruising just about everywhere on his body from the impact, as well as a completely dislocated arm and elbow.

His odds got worse.

Currently, he was comatose, they expected that even wanted it for a short time. Just to allow his body to heal just a little before the stress of being hit by a car truly hit him.

Heidi felt herself collapse into the chair behind her.

She began to sob.

Hysterically.

Erika began to rub her back. Soothingly tracing the same circle.

Heidi'd forgotten that Erika was even there.

Slowly she looked back up at Philip and whispered a quiet request to see her son.

He said yes, but it was the ICU so family members only.

He gestured to Erika. She nodded understandingly.

Numbly, Heidi got up and walked the familiar halls.

With every step, her heart broke just a little bit more.

Until finally she saw him, and everything shattered.

* * *

Something didn't feel right.

All that he could see was darkness, an unending void.

He didn't know where he was or how he got here, all he knew was that he needed to get home.

Home felt so far away though.

Everything felt so far away.

There was white noise coming from somewhere around him.

It sounded like sobbing almost, but like everything else in this strange place, it sounded very far away, like an echo.

He tried to call out but found that he couldn't.

He tried to move, but again, he couldn't.

He could barely even lift a finger.

He could feel though.

He could feel the pain slowly overtaking his body, feel his heart try harder and harder to beat, feel his breathing grow painful.

He was aware, in this endless void, of only the pain he was feeling.

* * *

 **And there you go. I know, I know, it's not my best work, but I tried really hard on this chapter. The last one, for me at least, was really hard to recover from for some reason. Anyway I hope that some of you picked up at what I was hinting at in that last part, if not, you are probably completely and utterly confused, but fear not! It will all be explained in the next chapter. Which I promise, won't take two months.**

 **Thanks!**

 **-Wezen**


	5. Letting Go

**So, here I am, late... again... I'm sorry, again. I got to a point while writing this chapter where I just didn't know how to continue from that point, so I stopped, for two months. I know you all don't really care about why I was late, but it gives me the smallest sense of satisfaction, so I'm gonna do it anyway. I think the best way to describe this chapter is as a filler, but I think some pretty important things happened, so I'm not sure. Tell me what you think. :D Oh, and thanks to Guest 2 for reviewing, it means a lot.**

* * *

Jared and Alana didn't know what they expected when they went to the hospital after school the next day, but it most definitely wasn't what they found.

They'd both been before, but never for something that was the magnitude of Evan's injuries, of which they did not know, yet.

They entered, the overbearing smell of chemicals attacking their faces as it always does.

The walls, meant to look simple and kind, instead gave the impression of a cell, they'd be trapped in even after they left.

Needless to say, neither of them had any doubt that what had happened to their friend was bad.

Really bad.

They, of course, had watched the news that morning, heard about it around school.

People who had followed the Connor Project asked about him if it was real or not, but they gave little information.

They knew just about as much as everyone else.

They walked up to reception asking to see Evan Hansen only to be told that they couldn't.

They asked why and were told that due to his being in the ICU he wasn't to be visited by anyone other than family, but the woman over there was with his mother.

The two looked over at a petite blonde sitting in the stereotypical red chairs in every hospital and doctor's office.

They nodded a polite thank you and left to go talk with the woman.

There was an awkward silence for the first few minutes after they sat down.

Alana next to the blonde, Jared next to her.

Finally, unable to deal with not knowing, Alana asked her about what happened.

The woman, looked at her, confused. Alana clarified, asking what had happened to Evan.

The woman asked who she was, Alana introduced herself and Jared, saying they were friends of Evan's, or acquaintances more like, they'd had a falling out.

The woman raised her eyebrows, obviously questioning that both of them had had a falling out with the same kid.

She told them it was for related reasons.

The woman still looked skeptical, so to prove whatever it was that she felt needed proving, Alana pulled up the Connor Project on her phone.

She showed the woman that she was co-president and the whole other list of things and that Jared was the treasurer.

Finally, the woman gave in. She introduced herself as Erika and told the teenagers that Evan was in a life-threatening state, it was so bad she couldn't even remember all of the injuries he was suffering from.

Alana and Jerad glanced at each other.

It was fleeting, but with it they both seem to convey the same emotion: fear.

They asked Erika what had happened exactly, and she told the two that she really didn't even know.

She just heard screaming and came outside.

They talked for a while, for the most part, it was about Evan.

Erika really seemed to know what kind of person he was.

They left out the struggles he'd already gone through, but soon they ran out of quote on quote 'happy' things to talk about. They needed to tell Erika that he was not in a good place, that he hadn't been for a while, and that these past few months he really seemed better.

But then… then he-

In the midst of their conversation Heidi returned, eyes bloodshot from crying, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

The three of them looked at her, eager for any news.

She cried harder and whispered so quietly it was barely audible.

Evan had flatlined.

* * *

Heidi had seen people flatline before, she was a nurse after all, and she knew how to save them, the correct procedure and all that.

But when it happened to her boy, she lost all control of her senses.

The absence of the semi-steady heartbeat and it's replacement of the same single tone that seemed to last forever.

The hands pulling her out of the room, not roughly.

The feeling of her mouth growing dry.

The horrible, unwelcome smell of death.

Everything was heightened as she watched her son be surrounded by doctors.

'Clear' was shouted several times, it was the worst experience she'd ever had.

* * *

People looked at Zoe even more strangely than they did before.

Not only was this letter that Evan wrote reflecting badly on her but people looked at her with a mixture of loathing and pity.

It was humiliating and infuriating.

Personally, she thought that she had every right to be angry, but the news of their very un-avoidable break-up hadn't exactly gotten out.

So, the disdain that people wrongly felt for her and the sad looks she was given as she walked through the halls was enough to drive her mad.

She couldn't just tell people that they'd broken up, they'd ask why, and for some reason unbeknownst to her, she didn't want to tell people that Evan had written the letter.

It seemed quite literally like salt to the emotional and physical wound.

How do you look if you ruin the reputation of a boy that had already been hit by a car? 'Cause Zoe thought she'd look like the most self-centered person that had ever lived.

It took some major convincing during band class, but ultimately, whilst playing some classic every jazz lover knew by heart, Zoe managed to come to the conclusion that she needed to visit Evan.

This wasn't any attempt at reconcile or forgiveness, but rather, a check-up, nothing more than making sure that he was okay.

At least, that's what she told herself.

Anybody could see that the feelings were still there and that this was more than a friend checking up on a friend.

Anyhow, a quarter of an hour after Jared and Alana had, Zoe made her way to the hospital, this was apparently the wrong time.

Zoe walked in experiencing the same feeling every other person had, to find a sobbing Heidi collapsed on the ground, surrounded by none other than Evan's estranged friends.

And another woman, of whom Zoe didn't know, she was there too.

Now, this would give the impression to anyone that the situation is bad, and that's exactly how Zoe felt.

Really, it's no surprise.

She rushed over to the group asking just how bad it was.

They all looked up at her, confusion set on their faces before all but one realized who she was.

Alana looked at her, trying to convey a message that just couldn't seem to get through.

Zoe shook her head oblivious.

Finally forcing Jared to mouth _flatline._

The fucking cherry on top of this entire mess.

Now it was wrong to be mad at him, he's dead.

Okay, maybe not dead, but so unbelievably close to it.

So close that Zoe couldn't handle it.

She got up and rushed, nay _ran_ , out of the waiting room, only to collapse outside, sobbing openly in public.

For such a reserved person, this display was truly mortifying.

* * *

It felt like lightning was coursing through his veins.

The blinding light was not so slowly enveloping his vision.

It felt like it would be so easy for him to let go, to stop trying so hard.

Only, he was unaware of what he was struggling to hold on to.

Everything was oddly numb, peaceful almost, but he was so tired.

And ironically, it felt like he hadn't slept in ages.

He was so close, so unbelievably close to finally letting go, when he heard it.

It was a voice, not distant, but as clear and cutting as glass.

It wasn't begging, but demanding that he hold on.

The voice didn't sound sad, it didn't sound angry, it sounded… it sounded like that of someone with experience. Like someone who knew what consequences letting go would bring.

Like someone who had dealt with it before.

So, he held on, for whoever the voice was.

Evan didn't let go.

* * *

 **And there it is. I really have nothing to say here at the moment. Knowing my track record, promises about a chapter being put up before that of two months from now is unlikely, and I don't have any major announcements to make. So I'm just gonna leave this here.**

 **-Wezen**


	6. Time Passing

**Guys, I did it! It's not been two months, can you believe it? I realized, in my haste to get the last chapter up, that I forgot to mention that none of the characters are mine other than Erika, though, I know you all know that. There, there's this chapter's disclaimer and the last's. Thanks again to Guest 2 for reviewing. Every one means a ton. Alright, I hope you all enjoy. :D**

* * *

It was week three in the hospital, Heidi's son, who Erika now knew as Evan, had pulled through.

The girl who'd come in right around the time that Evan had flatlined was still a mystery to her.

She hasn't come back.

Jared and Alana had to leave every day for school, but they came back almost as soon as the day was done; spending the remaining hours of the painstakingly long day on homework.

Erika began to wonder if either of them actually had homes to go to after school. Though, she quickly tossed this idea out the metaphorical window, as it was absurd.

Of course, they had homes.

Erika also returned home every day. As any person would.

She needed to cleanse her senses of just all of the hospital _stuff._

She also didn't know what she was still doing here.

It was funny, this strange attachment that she had to Evan.

She knew why, though she didn't want to admit it.

She saw it happening again.

Her own pitiful life, repeating itself in another human being's.

She wouldn't allow this to happen.

When the doctors came back out, after Evan had flatlined once again, they were solemn.

It seemed to be the only emotion that doctors here were allowed to show, but that's beside the point.

She'd seen this solemn expression before, three times to be exact.

When? Well, that's a story for another day.

Erika glanced sideways at the group surrounding her.

Heidi, Alana, and Jared. Evan had people here for him, something Walter didn't.

He didn't deserve that, but by the time he needed people there for him, they were all gone.

Erika blinked away the tears resting on her eyelashes.

She ran a hand through her unkempt golden hair.

Today was the day.

Somehow, Heidi had managed to get her to see Evan.

Just the same with Jared and Alana.

No one knew how, but they gladly went along.

Jared and Alana were anxious to see him, Erika was anxious to just get a clear picture of this mystery boy.

She was first to see him, everyone else wasn't quite ready.

There was a strange sense of déjà vu, walking the ICU hallways again with a nurse.

Evan was still comatose, laying on the hospital bed, showing striking similarities to a corpse.

God, she had to stop thinking like that.

Walter's fate wasn't Evan's. It just wasn't. It wasn't.

She stared at him, memorizing every little detail, every bruise, bandage, and cast.

He was still, the only showing movement being the steady rise of his chest.

The constant beeping in the background confirming that.

Suddenly, as if it wasn't herself acting, Erika grabbed Evan's hand.

It was a comforting thing, for her at least.

It was warm, still alive.

Slowly, wearily, she sat down next to him, keeping his hand in hers.

She whispered to him, urging that he stay alive.

Erika was sure that he didn't know how much his mother needed him.

He was all Heidi had.

She was sure that he didn't know how much his friends (acquaintances? She honestly didn't know anymore) cared about him.

Surprisingly, though Erika wasn't aware that she had, Evan's girlfriend hadn't shown up.

She told him, commanded him, to not let go. He couldn't let go.

* * *

Alana was next.

She walked into his room, tears silently making their way down her cheeks.

He laid there, perfectly positioned on the bed.

The covers we just pulled up to his bandaged chest, his arms lying against his sides, one of them in an all to familiar cast.

He'd just gotten his other one off, too.

Quickly, unlike Erika, she sat down next to him.

She continued to cry, embarrassed, for everything she had done to negatively impact her unconscious friend beside her.

Alana too noticed the steady rise and fall of Evan's chest.

That was at least comforting, to know that he was still breathing.

Then she began to talk.

She told Evan of everything that had occurred in the time that he's been asleep.

They'd managed to raise the money for the orchard, laughing dryly at the fact that his almost dying helped with that.

She told him that people were worried about him, the Connor Project page had blown up after the accident, people on every social media site you could think of were afraid for him, people questioned if it really was an accident.

Alana had tried to ignore the latter inquiry, but the evidence for it stacked up far too quickly.

He wasn't happy, even if he seemed to be.

It was clear to her that Zoe and he had broken up, though it was never spoken aloud.

His mother was upset with him, Jared was upset with him, she was upset with him.

None of the Murphy's, other than Zoe for that short five minutes, had come to see him.

He was anxious all the time, ever since she'd confronted him about the emails.

Since she said that they didn't need him anymore.

There was too much evidence for it to not be considered a possibility.

Though Alana wasn't aware, it wouldn't have been the first time he'd attempted something like this.

She begged her friend for a sign, that this was all an accident, that he hadn't wanted this to happen, but alas, nothing came, nothing at all.

* * *

Jared had no idea if he could actually go in or not.

His facade quickly crumbled as he watched the two women go in and come out.

He'd seen Alana very clearly crying.

He'd seen Erika with this strange determination on her face.

He thought about his car insurance.

The sad excuse he used in order to defend his talking to Evan.

And then he thought of Evan.

As much as he might not want to admit it, Evan was his friend.

He thought of Evan dead, dead with the thought that everyone hated him, that Jared hated him, and he couldn't bear it.

With some kind of feigned confidence, he made his way inside the room. Telling himself that it was just Evan.

His friend, Evan.

Evan.

Evan.

Evan.

God, how he wished this hadn't happened.

He wished that Evan was just at home, sulking over his sucky life, rather than forcing his friends to live it.

He wished, that Evan would appear at school tomorrow, the same kid that Jared told friends and family friends were completely different things.

He wished that he could just have his friend back.

So, he begged Evan to wake up.

He apologized for everything.

Hurting him, ignoring him, hating him, even if it was only for a short time.

Suddenly, as if it was the sign begged for by Alana, Jared had an idea.

He patted himself down, searching for something. Until finally he found it.

Silently, he acted, making sure Evan was sure to see it when he awoke.

Because he would wake up.

There wasn't a doubt in his troubled mind anymore, his friend would come back.

He slowly rose, leaving the room.

His fear gone.

All of it.

* * *

He could almost feel the passage of time.

Feel the presence of people around him.

He could feel the sorrow that enveloped his body.

More importantly, however, he could feel his body.

He could feel his fingers move, little, but he could feel it.

He could feel the pain in his head and chest.

He could feel.

With great effort, Evan felt his eyelids open.

It was painful at first.

Light showed all around him, machinery was constantly blasting noise towards him.

He went to rub his eyes, feeling the familiar weight of a cast back on his arm.

He looked down at it.

That's when he saw it. The message from a friend. It was simple, but Evan cherished it. What was the message?

Just a simple, classic,

 _Get well soon.-Sincerely, Me._

* * *

 **It happened. To be honest, I wasn't planning on having Evan wake up so soon, but I think that it was too good to pass up. Especially now that I've made everyone sad. We all needed some good at the moment. I did, at least. I hope you enjoyed.**

 ** _-Wezen_**


	7. Merely a Begining

**So, yeah, I really can't believe this either. I don't know how I managed to get yet another chapter up in less than a week, but here we are. I actually really love this one too. Definalty one of my favorites up to date. I think that's just because Evan's awake and I can really get the story moving, but inspiration struck while writing this chapter. It's so genius that I just can't wait to finish this story. To end it in the perfect way. Just to be clear I don't any of this. Other than Philip Franklin and Erika, none of the characters are mine. Guest 2, thank you so much for reviewing. Your feedback really drives me to make every chapter better. So I hope that you most of all enjoy this chapter. And the rest of you reading this, though I'm pretty sure no one else does. Anyway. I really hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Instantly, Evan was surrounded.

Doctors, nurses, checking the awoken coma patient.

Though, even with the multitude of people checking on him, taking care of him, he felt alone.

It was no different than the start of this whole mess, but he didn't have any recollection of that either.

He had no idea why he was where he was, or where he was, for that matter.

He could, of course, deduce that he was in the hospital, likely the one his mother worked at.

But he couldn't figure out how he'd ended up there.

It was common, with injuries such as the ones that Evan had sustained, that there be temporary memory loss, but he wasn't aware of this.

He was also painfully aware that everything that could possibly hurt, did. Like hell. He couldn't find the words to complain though.

As his mind raced a mile a minute, he sat there idly.

Letting those fussing over him to do whatever they needed to.

Finally, a familiar face came into the room. Dr. Franklin.

He greeted Evan matter-of-factly if that was even possible.

Evan didn't respond. He couldn't respond.

Dr. Franklin asked him questions, his name, his age, the date, who his mother was, anything and everything.

Evan didn't answer any one of them.

He just couldn't, no matter how hard he tried.

Finally, Franklin asked if Evan could speak.

Evan shook his head, still panicked and still afraid.

Already he could feel his hands growing clammy. God, he couldn't even last fifteen minutes.

Franklin nodded, putting a reassuring hand on Evan's shoulder.

He told him he was gonna be okay.

Evan didn't believe that for a second.

* * *

Philip Franklin's return to the waiting room was sudden and arbitrary.

Heidi wasn't expecting it, and neither was anyone else in their small little band.

He walked at the slowest pace you could possibly imagine.

Step. Wait five seconds.

Step. Wait five more seconds.

Step-you get the jist.

He didn't actually walk like this, it's just the way it felt like to Heidi.

When he finally did reach them, he smiled.

Philip Franklin smiled. Heidi thought that was impossible.

That's when he broke the news.

Evan had woken up.

Just about fifteen minutes ago.

Heidi had been with Evan up until five minutes before that.

She'd gotten up to go to the bathroom and found herself unable to go back.

Over the past four weeks, her hope had begun to dwindle.

Slowly shrinking until she couldn't take it anymore and she broke down right outside the room where Erika, Jared, and Alana awaited her return.

Erika had come and found her, convinced her to take a walk, before the two of them finally returned to the waiting room, about five minutes before Philip had come in.

Meaning that in the time that she and Erika had been wandering around the hospital discussing any random thing to get her mind of her son, he'd been awake, for the first time in a month he was awake.

Heidi asked to see him.

Franklin nodded, obviously delighted to deliver this news, despite his poor attempt at not showing it, but suddenly his tone of voice turned back to its usual solemness.

He informed her of Evan's current state.

Obviously better than it was, but for some reason, he couldn't speak.

He told them that he didn't quite understand it, but they didn't seem to care.

Heidi was unphased by this information, all she wanted to do was see her son.

Awake, responsive.

At last, Franklin was leading her in the direction of Evan's room.

She saw him before he saw her.

She whispered his name, his head turned.

* * *

Zoe hadn't returned after Evan had flatlined.

She just couldn't bring herself to do it. Just as she couldn't bring herself to tell her parents of his entire predicament.

They were to busy wallowing in their own grief to pay attention to literally anything outside of work and home.

So guilt-ridden herself that when Jared and Alana cornered her at school a couple of weeks after his flatlining she couldn't bring herself to look at either them.

She was sitting in the cafeteria, surrounded by her friends, none of them knew anything other than the common knowledge that Evan was in the hospital.

Everyone in the entire school knew it, what none of them knew was that Evan was awake.

The most dramatic of dramatic irony.

Zoe's friends had noticed her change in demeanor after everything with Evan had gone down.

They'd first judged it as heartbreak-you know, the breakup and everything, they were all aware of this now-but it seemed like a little more than that.

Actually, a lot more than that.

She was distant, moodier than when her brother had died, which was _very_ moody.

She wasn't herself in jazz band, which she normally thrived in, but it seemed as if she thought it more a chore than anything else nowadays.

Her friends tried not to let their discomfort with her new attitude show, but they couldn't handle it anymore when she didn't respond to Jared and Alana.

They were elated.

The first time they'd been this way in a month.

Zoe barely acknowledged their presence, just nodding to them in a half-hearted hello.

They told her that Evan had woken up.

She didn't respond.

Her friends quickly shared the elated-maybe just excited-feeling that Jared and Alana had felt.

Zoe, however, showed no response.

Like none, nada, zip.

The two messengers were obviously confused, they'd assume that she too would be delighted in Evan's awakening, but she wasn't.

Clearly stated for like the third time.

They asked if she had heard them.

She nodded. The two looked as if they expected her to say more.

Surprisingly, she did.

She told them that Evan wouldn't want to see her, and if she was being honest she didn't want to see him.

Every person surrounding her was confused, her friends slightly less so, but confused nonetheless.

Finally, Jared and Alana looked at each other, undeterred they handed her a card.

It was signed by people of whom Evan was close with, that being like five people who knew of what had happened.

Everyone was sure there would be another, a school provided one, for the boy hit by a car, the boy who almost died, the boy who only about seven people were close with, two of which were completely unaware that he'd been hit by a car.

They'd have anyone who wanted to sign it, sign it, and that would be a bunch of people who barely knew who Evan was.

It'd give them the smallest sense of satisfaction to say that they'd signed a piece of paper telling someone they didn't know to _feel better._

Back to the matter at hand, however, Jared and Alana told Zoe she could sign it if she wanted, but they'd need it back by end of the day.

Today was the first time they were going to see Evan since he'd awoken and they wanted to surprise him with it.

Zoe showed a hint of a smile.

It was sweet, that she'd have to admit.

She nodded, taking the card and sitting next to her tray.

Later, she'd play in jazz band, with a little of her love for it returned.

There was a long way to go for everyone.

For Evan, for Heidi, Zoe, her parents, Jared, Alana, and even Erika.

In the literal and metaphorical sense, but it was a journey they'd make together.

For the first time in a long time, not one of them was truly alone.

And despite this final sounding ending.

Here is not the end of this beginning.

It is as it sounds.

Merely a beginning.

* * *

 **Just to be clear, that was not the end of the story. I don't think I'm anywhere close to reaching an endpoint I'll be truly happy with. I think that for the time being everyone needs a little closure. A little hope and I think that just joining everyone together on one journey of fixing themselves, was what we all needed. I hope that you enjoyed that chapter- and thanks to A Series of Unfortunate Events for teaching me what dramatic irony is.**

 **-Wezen**


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